Panel to Discuss Future of the NCAA

The future of the NCAA in the wake of the unprecedented sanctions levied against the Penn State football program will be examined by a nationally respected group of panelists Oct. 3, the university announced Monday.

‘The Future of the NCAA and Its Membership’ will start at 7 p.m. at the State Theatre in downtown State College. The session is free of charge and open to the public.

The panel, moderated by Malcolm Moran, Penn State’s Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society and director of the Curley Center, includes:

• Gene Corrigan, a former NCAA president who also served as commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference and director of athletics at Notre Dame during a career in intercollegiate athletics that spanned five decades;

• Amy Perko, executive director of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics;

• R. Scott Kretchmar, professor of exercise and sport science at Penn State who served as inaugural chair of the NCAA Scholarly Colloquium on College Sports;

• Thomas O’Toole, assistant managing editor for USA Today Sports.

‘The unprecedented process that led to the sanctions against Penn State has inspired intense debate about the industry of college sports,’ Moran said in press release. ‘An examination of the NCAA mission is central to the Curley Center’s role as an advocate for transparency and reporting on athletic and academic reform.’

Penn State was slapped with a sanctioned package on July 23 that included $60 million in fines, a four-year postseason ban and reduction of 40 scholarships over four years. Players are also free to transfer to any school until preseason practice 2013 and not be forced to sit out a year, provided they meeting standard eligibility requirements.